How I Fell In Love With Heavy Metal

I am very open-minded when it comes to music. All through the many years from my childhood to adult-age I listened to a variety of music, including pop, rock, classics and world music.
Rock-wise, besides 'classic' rock, I liked ACDC, Alice Cooper, Gary Moore, Guns 'n Roses,

During the past few years my rock music taste shifted a bit to the harder / heavier side...
I remember one day I went shopping to a mall in Warsaw / Poland; I was in the CD-department. I was looking for some specific world music CD. Over the speaker system they played a music which I fell in love with immediately, not knowing what album it was and by which artist. So I went to the DJ in the store and asked what music was being played. He told me it was the brand new album 'Whirlwind' by Transatlantic. I immediately bought that CD and listened to these songs very often during the next couple of days. I didn't clearly realize the genre was actually 'Metal'. That was in late 2010.

A major step towards Metal followed in early March 2012.
It was late at night when my wife, who returned from a business-trip phoned me up, asking to pick her up from the railway station. Well, I jumped into my car and drove 2 miles to the station. On my favourite radio station, tuned in my radio, they started playing 'Turbo Lover' by Judas Priest. Of course, I had heard about Judas Priest in the past, but never digged deep into their music. When I listened to this old song, now, at the age of 51, this heavy metal guitar sound and the male vocals always blew my mind! I thought: Damn! Holy ****! I really love this music!
On the same night I went to youtube.com and listened to a couple of Judas Priest songs. I instantly downloaded (pay-download) a couple of songs from the Turbo lover album. The following week I bought a collection of 5 Judas Priest CDs. Whenever I had some leisure time, I listened to these songs; not all of these songs I liked equally.
From that moment I knew that my current music taste was towards Metal. No doubt about it!

April 2012:
On the street where my workplace is, I saw a billboard ad, advertising a contert by ACCEPT.
Till that day I had not known that there is such a band; didn't know what genre their music would be. I was curious... went on youtube.com and the song 'Stalingrad' popped up. I simply was fascinated! I checked out a number of other songs from the 'Stadingrad' and 'Blood of the Nations' album. On the next day I possessed 10 ACCEPT songs.
I started reading entries on various internet platforms, looking for more information about the German Heavy Metal (Teutonic Metal) Band ACCEPT. I found what I was looking for... plus some additional info: somebody wrote, that he found, by coincidence, when searching for ACCEPT, music by other Heavy Metal Bands from Sweden... one of which was SABATON...
What I knew before, was, that Sweden has a large number of Metal Bands... but it was the first time for me now to search Sabaton. The first SABATON song I encountered on youtube was 'Uprising'.
'Uprising' is about the occupation of Poland and Warsaw by German Nazis between 1939 and 1944 and the Polish struggle for freedom.
Listening to this song, I was almost paralyzed, sitting in my chair, the headphones on... I couldn't believe my ears! My heart started to beat faster... I was in (Metal)-heaven!
On the next day, I downloaded more than ten SABATON songs on my portable player...
SABATON lyrics are mostly about war - but there is NO glorification of war and violence!
My favourite ACCEPT songs include: Kill the pain, Teutonic Terror, The Abyss, Shades on Death, New world coming, Stalingrad, Shadow Soldiers.
My favourite SABATON songs include: Uprising, Cliffs of Gallepoli, 40:1, Long live the king, Primo Victoria.

The very latest discovery on my Heavy Metal journey is 'Powerwolf', a German-Romanian Band; their lyrics are in the spiritual-religious region... Their sound is just bombastical, mind-blowing! Besides the 'classical' Metal guitar, keyboard and drums, there is a choir and there are even organ-fragments.
My favourite Powerwolf songs include: Sanctified with Dynamite, We drink your blood, Son of a wolf, Ira Sancti (all songs from the 'Blood of the Saints' album).

My Heavy Metal journey certaily isn't over yet... it may just have begun!
One thing is for sure: It is the first time in my life for me to encounter a music genre which has such a deep impact on me in such a short time! I can't live without Metal music these days... I need to get my dose every day; when riding on the subway train, during lunchbreak at work and after work at home, on weekends, even during outdoor-camping in my tent at night. Maybe I am already Metal-addicted!

There are probably hundreds of Metal sub-genres, so many more things to discover... maybe too many for one lifetime (or what is left of my life, considering my present age...)
As far as I know for today, my favourite Metal sub-genres are: Speed Metal, Power Metal, Classic Metal, Alternative-Metal. Let's see where this journey leads me to next...
It's a good question why I needed to be beyond the age of 50 before discovering this music?

More From People Who Love Heavy Metal Music

I grew up with very little exposure to music beyond what my parents listened to. My dad listens to country "music" and my mom loves '80's rock, so that's mostly what I listened to, more from habit than from actual enjoyment. When I was in my first year of High School, I heard...

deleted

26-30
3 Responses
2
Oct 16, 2011

I have been playing the guitar on and off since I was 8. I had a serious brain injury and destroyed my memory so I have had to relearn and I'm still trying to learn what I have forgotten and I suffer from stage fright now as well. I use love playing for people now I can't even...

First Story on EP:
I LOVE metal, it is my music of choice. I think it started because as a kid my dad would listen to AC/DC, Iron Maiden, etc. So I grew up hearing rock and guitars. As all kids do I went through a pop phase, but when other kids were listening to...